Harry's Heritage
by TaraLi
Summary: Fudge discovers what a bad mistake he's made when he brings in Harry for trial after Harry defeats Voldemort. Bad both for himself, and perhaps for the entire Wizarding World. Oops, forgot disclaimer: Not mine, JKR's!


**Harry's Heritage**

His Royal Highness, Emperor of the Universe and Minister of Magic Ming the Merciless Cornelius Fudge walked into Courtroom No. 7 smiling to himself. That damn Potter brat had been totally helpless after defeating Voldemort, and now it was time to get revenge. Potter had been a complete pain since he had gotten to Hogwarts, and finally Fudge was going to be rid of him.

Everyone present had seen him use the killing curse, not just once but twice - once on Voldemort's body, then again on Voldemort's spirit as it escaped the body. The carnage surrounding the scene was horrific, with most of the injured and dead being Potter's friends and classmates from the DA. Minister Fudge had ordered the Aurors most faithful to him to hang back, and to not worry, because he knew the Prophecy and its meaning, and wasn't worried that Voldemort would be a problem much longer.

He'd called on those surviving Aurors to immediately take Potter into custody, so that with Voldemort, Potter, and Dumbledore out of the picture, he would become by far the most powerful in the Wizarding World. They had done so, not worrying about being gentle about it. They all knew that Potter had no chance to be found innocent of whatever charges the Minister chose to throw at him.

In fact, the trial was held in nearly record time - less than 36 hours after the death of Voldemort, the Wizengamot was assembled to hear the charges and testimony in the case of Harry James Potter. One Dolores Umbridge was specially released from St. Mungo's just to do the reading of the charges, something she did with a glee that would seem completely out of order in any muggle courtroom. Minister Fudge and several of his top aides, including one Percy Wetherby had spent several hours coming up with the list, and it was a long one.

The primary charges were, of course, the use of the unforgivable killing curse during the battle with Voldemort, but they had also gone back through his records, and culled out every single case of accidental magic they could find, every case of underaged use of magic - including ignoring the previous rulings when Dobby had committed the crime, as well as ignoring the ruling of self-defense with regards to the Patronus used to chase away the Dementors that Umbridge had sent herself. In fact, somehow, Harry became charged with every crime that Umbridge had committed. Incredible convolutions were planned to show Harry's guilt in using a Blood Quill, while ignoring that it was Umbridge who forced him to use it.

When it was all said and done, there were 27 feet of parchment detailing his "crimes", which took Umbridge some two and a half hours to read aloud to the court and the spectators in the courtroom.

And it wasn't as if the spectators expected any mercy for Harry. In fact, many of them had various treats that they were eating, as though enjoying an evening's entertainment at home. Attendance at this trial was very carefully arranged - in fact, the only spectators allowed were purebloods who had long had a dark reputation. They all figured this was going to be a great lot of fun.

When Umbridge fell silent after the reading of the charges, Fudge made a minor concession to wanting to appear fair, and asked Harry for his plea.

"I invoke the Heritage Rites, and demand a Trial by my Peers, should any be found!"

This caused a wave of surprise to pass through the crowd, but it was too late - the magic had been invoked. This ritual had not been invoked in at least 200 years, and everyone seemed a bit nervous, since it would not stop until either every magical person in Britain currently alive was accounted for, or the appropriate number of peers were found. The parchment would stay in place, and should foul play befall anyone called by it, alternates would be selected. There was nothing for it, but to go get the appropriate tool. Oddly enough, the tool was a Blood Quill, in the only legal use for one. The Head of the Wizengamot handed the Blood Quill to Harry, while chanting a short spell. Once done, he placed a piece of parchment in front of Harry, and told him to use the quill to write his full name across the top it. This done, the parchment started to glow, and then moved to hover against one wall of the courtroom, while expanding to cover the entire wall. From there, it was easy to see a line start from Harry's name. Under that, those looking closely could see the names James Potter and Lily Evans Potter, then from there, more lines branched out.

Those in the audience were surprised to see that the branching occurred not just below James' name, but Lily's as well. The spell was not supposed to follow after muggle bloodlines, so it quickly became apparent that in fact Lily's bloodline was squibs. Soon enough, after about 6 generations, wizard names that the whole crowd recognized started to show up.

In the mean time, lines also went up, spreading upwards and outwards from older pairings, until currently living wizards were listed - the Malfoys, both Lucius and Draco, the Longbottoms, the Goyles, the Notts, the Parkinsons, the Dumbledores - fairly quickly, it became apparent that this tree was going to have to spread to cover most of the wall with very small type, and likely was going to end up listing everyone back to the Founding Families of the British Wizard community.

Surprise grew, as some branches that weren't expected showed up, such as the Heritage Parchment ignoring that Andromeda Black Tonks and Sirius Black had been disowned by the Black Family. Other surprises showed up further down the chart, cadet branches of families that were not expected showing up. Quickly, the diagram more closely resembled the Forbidden Forest than a simple family tree. Finally, the lines traced down to a few pairings at the very bottom of the parchment, the 69 Founding Families. From these, a gold line then started up, picking its way through the chart highlighting the proper inheritance, and it became apparent that a few cases had occurred where the proper line of inheritance had been side-stepped. The lines spread out across the middle of the chart, but then started showing a tendency to draw back in towards the center.

The onlookers watched in horror as one by one, the supposed heads of various pure-blooded families were proven not to be the proper head. The lines grew closer and closer together, some racing upwards faster than others.

The first golden line traced up through James Potter's name, and when it hit Harry's name, a new line of writing appeared below Harry's name, and it said "Head of Family Black". A second line followed, and the line changed to read "Head of Families Black, Potter, Nott". Four of the lines seemed to chase through the section of the tree under Lily Evans' name, and as they plowed into Harry's name, gasps of amazement arose as the names Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Goyle, and Fudge were added. That surprise seemed to break everyone's surprise meter, because there was no particular reaction when the names Pendragon, Merlin, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw appeared from lines that came up through James Potter's name.

As the names of various lines appeared under Harry's name, members of the Wizengamot holding the matching seat disappeared from their seat, to appear standing at the side of the room. Nobody was sure just what this meant, but they began to get somewhat nervous. Lines long thought extinct were showing up under Harry's name on the chart. The Crouches had ended just a few years earlier, after Barty Crouch Jr. killed his father at the end of the Tri-Wizard Cup, and then was himself killed by a dementor at Fudge's behest.

Finally, the last of the lines reached Harry's name, and the horror reached its climax - for every single line of the Founding Families ended up at Harry's name - even the Weasleys and the Prewitts - all 69. The shock and horror of this occurrence appeared on every face in the courtroom, save one - Harry's.

As something of an anti-climax, a box appeared in one of the unoccupied corners of the wall-sized parchment. It listed:

Earl of the Magical Realm, 1st Order: Harry James Potter  
Barons of the Magical Realm, 2nd Order: None Currently Alive  
Lords of the Magical Realm, 3rd Order:

Here, many of those thought of as Heads of Family were listed, including Arthur Weasley, Theodore Nott Sr., Andromeda Black Tonks, Neville Longbottom, and two dozen others. Below that were listed Commoners of the Magical Realm, and it was only in this list were such notable names as Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, Colin & Dennis Creevey, and the rest of the currently living Wizards.

The shock turned to fear as the chair that had been holding the accused released him, and Harry James Potter stood up, glowing with an aura of magic that resembled looking into an opal, spots of brilliant color shifting over it at random. "As the Heritage Ritual finds no Peer for me, I am judged innocent, and released from custody." He turned to the two dementors. "You may return to your posting at Azkaban, along with your brothers. I expect that there will _not_ be a repeat of your abandonment of that posting in the future without proper authorization?"

Very few in the audience had noticed, or understood, but it appeared that Harry understood the meaning of Family Azkaban appearing in the list of honors due him. The dementors turned, and left, gliding through a section of wall that seemed otherwise unremarkable, except that both had very obviously specifically headed for it, and no other part of the room.

"Now," Harry said, "as my Proxy for House Weasley, I install Arthur Weasley to the Wizengamot. As my Proxy for House Prewitt, I install Molly Prewitt Weasley. As my Proxy for House Black, I install Nymphadora Tonks. As my Proxy for House Malfoy, I install Andromeda Black Tonks..." Harry continued down the list of families he was head of, generally installing someone related to the family as his Proxy, though in a few cases, a certain mischievousness seemed to arise, as when he named Hermione Granger as his Proxy for the Malfoy family - a move that had both Malfoys screaming in anger at both Harry, and Hermione.

"As my final action tonight, I hereby remove Cornelius Fudge as Minister of Magic, and place Amelia Bones in said position, until such time as the normal course of succession takes place. As this vacates the position of Head of Magical Law Enforcement, I promote Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt to that position, until such time as Minister Bones elects to replace him. With this, I close this meeting of the Wizengamot." As everyone watched Harry walk out of the meeting, still glowing, they heard him mutter to himself. "Dammit, if Fudge had just acted half-decently, I wouldn't have had to do this to everyone. I didn't _want_ this stupidity!"

Everyone present could do nothing but stand, and look at each other in shock, wondering what would be the end result of all of this. Fear was etched in most faces, as they realized that things would be far different in the future. Slowly it dawned on them that they weren't even sure if they would be able to enter their own homes, with the way the wards worked.

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This little plot bunny came to me, but I can't really see how to turn it into a much longer story without simply using this as an excuse for the Malfoys to try to attack Harry - and who really knows what that aura means, or how long it's going to last. It's obvious the Wizarding World has changed beyond all belief by this simple action, but I can't really see just how those changes would affect things. So I leave this story here. Blessed Be, and Merry Met.


End file.
